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Yahoo Answers
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startups
great moments in journalism
Did you know that Russian troops are thrusting into the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia? That's what readers will learn from a Google Maps graphic accompanying a news story about Russian incursions into Georgia — the nation-state in the Caucasus, not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern United States. Google's mixup will not help Yahoo Answers user Jessica B., who presciently asked, "i herd on the news that rusia has invaded but i dont see them no where wats going on." A screenshot of Google's erroneous invasion map:
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Google News informs us that the Russians are invading the South
Did you know that Russian troops are thrusting into the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia? That's what readers will learn from a Google Maps graphic accompanying a news story about Russian incursions into Georgia — the nation-state in the Caucasus, not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern United States. Google's mixup will not help Yahoo Answers user Jessica B., who presciently asked, "i herd on the news that rusia has invaded but i dont see them no where wats going on." A screenshot of Google's erroneous invasion map:
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jeff bonforte
Yahoo's social searcher fired
Jeff Bonforte, Yahoo's vice president of "social search," was among those laid off today. Yahoo's attempts to harness its vast user base to improve search results has never borne fruit. Since Yahoo has said it's cutting back in areas not deemed critical to its future, is Bonforte's departure a sign that social search no longer matters? Unlikely, since Yahoo recently incorporated Del.icio.us, the Web bookmarking service it bought from Joshua Schachter in 2005, into its search results. And management of Yahoo Answers, another Bonforte responsibility, was moved to Europe. More likely Bonforte, ostensibly Schachter's boss, was deemed inessential to the effort. Yahoo's layer-cake bureaucracy is being sliced away.
stats
Yahoo Answers more popular than the iPod
Atop Yahoo's response to the Microsoft takeover bid, Yahoo has this "fun fact": more people use Yahoo! Answers than own an iPod. That's great! Now if only Yahoo could get each Answers user to pay $181 apiece, like 22 million iPod buyers did to Apple last quarter, it wouldn't be in this mess.
google
Google relaunching "Answers" as Yahoo clone
Google is relaunching its failed Answers product as a Yahoo Answers clone, say the sharp-eyed obsessives at Google Operating System. In the original Answers, questioners would offer cash for answers and a researcher would provide them. As a result, the questions were usually highly detailed and meticulously factchecked. In the new version, supposedly titled Google Questions and Answers, the service would be free to use but presumably have the same accuracy problems that plague Yahoo's version. More »
retreads
Amazon Askville to take on Yahoo Answers
Amazon has officially launched Askville, its version of Yahoo's wildly successful pageview generator Yahoo Answers. On Yahoo's site, the questions get answered through the generosity of its users. Askville will bribe users with Quest Gold, redeemable for Amazon.com gift cards (for a limited time). Google Answers, which was shuttered a year ago this week, had questioners pay to get their questions answered. Time will tell if this scheme will be able to compete or if it will fail like it did the first time. That's right: This is Askville Version 2.0. It launched last year to underwhelming response. Next time, Jeff Bezos should ask if anyone wants him to do anything besides sell books.
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